Thanks to its fnctional expertise in the field of Multicopters , MIM is able to implement effective solutions for Remote Sensing .

Remote sensing using unmanned aircraft is , among other things, to equip multirotors with hyper- spectral sensors ( camera broad spectrum ) to analyze and process the data from the images.

Compared to other aircraft, multirotors are a highly profitable , fast and flexible solution to be used for this application

Higher than that definition satellite images

The latest technological advances in hyper- spectral sensors and UAV platforms make observation and more efficient environmental monitoring.

The information obtained through the current satellite multispectral have a ground resolution of one meter and 4 to 8 spectral bands

Hyper - spectral sensors onboard a UAV to provide 50 to 300 spectral bands with a resolution of 50 centimeters along the ground . They can in this way obtain more detailed information.

Remote sensing

Fauna & Flora project

The project intends to monitor specific areas of sea grass, mangrove forest and reef on a regular basis. Low altitude aerial images will be taken two times a year using MiM latest technology on areas pre-identified by FFI on Koh Rong Island in Sihanouk ville province.

The main objective is to acquire detailed information and increase both the monitoring performance and repetitiveness allowing detecting early changes in the studied environments.

Drone low altitude imagery can provide a complementary level of information compared with traditional satellite images and with data collected during field surveys.

Drone technology will be combined with a light multi-spectral camera sensor optimized for capturing visible light wavelengths longer than 520 nm and near-infrared up to 920 nm, making it suitable for capturing multi-spectral images of forests or crops and studying eco-systems.

Low altitude aerial images taken with the drone will then follow a chain of processing starting with image compositing, orthophoto production, image analysis and processing. The successive results will then be integrated into a dedicated GIS for each monitored environment.

In addition, multicopter drones requires a very small take-off and landing area which allows it to be deployed around densely wooded islands or estuaries. Given this flexibility and the ease of deployment, a multicopter design is particularly well suited for this project.

The project will start early 2014 and will last for two years. In the meantime, Amaury Peeters from MiM is currently adapting and testing the equipment (drone and IR camera) for the coming flight trials end of 2013.

Contacts Remote Sensing:

Guillaume@madeinmars.eu

Amaury@madeinmars.eu

Amaury Peeters is a Bio-engineer specialised in land use planning who holds a PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). As a scientist, he has undertaken different research studies on rural development issues and cropping system dynamics combining cartographic and socioeconomic approaches, and as consultant, he has carried out studies and consultancy on land use planning, remote sensing and GIS, both in Southeast Asia and Europe..

Monitoring of sea grass, mangrove and reef using low altitude multispectral images taken with a drone multicopter Organisation: Fauna & Flora International